Maintenance of nuclear power plants

Overview

ABSTRACT

This article is the third of a three-part review presenting maintenance applied to French nuclear power plants in all its aspects – technical, human and organizational. It reviews the main BOP components, some generic equipment and I&C (both nuclear and non-nuclear), giving for each a brief description, operating feedback, applied maintenance programs and long-term perspectives.

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AUTHOR

Jean-Pierre HUTIN: former Technical Director, Nuclear Facilities, EDF

INTRODUCTION

In the first article on the maintenance of nuclear power plants [BN3295] , we reviewed the design principles and operating modes of a unit, and described the general arrangements for its maintenance from the political, human and organizational points of view. The second article [BN3296] dealt with the main boiler components. This third article reviews the main components of non-nuclear systems, some generic equipment present on all systems (nuclear and non-nuclear), and the control system of the whole unit. After a brief review of the design and manufacturing conditions, it describes the experience feedback for each component, the problems encountered, the maintenance strategies and programs implemented, and the outlook for their life expectancy.

Reminder of the general operation of a nuclear unit

In the boiler, the primary water heats up as it passes through the core (the site of the nuclear reaction), goes to the steam generators (SGs) where it transfers its heat to the water in the secondary circuit, which vaporizes, then the primary water returns to the core. The steam thus produced turns the turbine that drives the alternator, which generates electricity. Returned to the liquid state by the "cooling" circuit, the secondary water is reheated (water station) and returned to the GV (figure 2 on [BN3295] ). Water from the cooling circuit is taken from the natural environment, where it is either discharged (open-circuit unit) or cooled in an air cooler and reused (closed-circuit unit).

Note: 900 MWe units and their components are referred to as "900 units" and "900 components" for short. The same applies to 1,300 and 1,450 (or N4) units.

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KEYWORDS

control theory | maintenance | nuclear power plant | generic equipments

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